Anthony Magistrale

BIO

TONY MAGISTRALE is Professor and former chair of the English Department at the University of Vermont, where he has taught courses in writing and American literature since 1983, when he returned to the United States after a Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Milan, Italy.  He has lectured at many universities in North and South America and Western Europe, most recently at Pontificia Catholic University in Santiago, Chile.  He obtained a Ph.D at the University of Pittsburgh in 1981

Over the past three decades, Magistrale’s twenty-six books and many articles have covered a broad area of interests.  He has published on the writing process, international study abroad, and his own poetry.  But the majority of his books have centered on defining and tracing Anglo-American Gothicism, from its origins in eighteenth-century romanticism to its contemporary manifestations in popular culture, particularly in the work of Stephen King.  He has published three separate interviews with Stephen King, and from 2005-09 Magistrale served as a research assistant to Mr. King.  Accordingly, a dozen of his scholarly books and many published journal articles have illuminated the genre’s narrative themes, psychological and social contexts, and historical development.  He is frequently cited in scholarly books dealing with the interdisciplinary aspects of American horror art, and has been interviewed and/or profiled on PBS television; ABC Radio, Australia; Vermont Public Radio; German Public Radio, ARD; North Carolina Public Radio; Ocean Light Productions, and by the following national and international newspapers and magazines: The New Yorker, Cinescape, The National Review, The Miami Herald, The Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The St. Petersburg Times, Movie Geeks United!, Lighthouse Media One (England), Oggi (Italy), Las Ultimas Noticias (Chile), and L’Express (France).

In 1997, Magistrale received the Kroespsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Vermont.  In 2001 he was presented the university’s George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award.  In 2003 he received the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Lecture Award.  And in 2010, he was named University Scholar for 2010-11.  His latest book is a study of The Shawshank Redemption--the famous film, the novella, the history of the Ohio State Reformatory, and their relationship to fan theory.  It was published in 2017 by Palgrave Macmillan and is available to order through Palgrave MacMillan or on Amazon.

Courses

• The Gothic
• American Horror Film
• Films of Stephen King
• 19th Century Poetry
• The Literary Vampire
• Major Author: Edgar Allen Poe
• Writing Across the Curriculum
• Film and Television Studies
• Readings and Research
• Poe's Children
• Films and Novels of Stephen King
• Modern Short Fiction
• Contemporary American Gothicism

Publications

Anthony Magistrale Publications (DOCX)

Awards and Achievements

• 2017 Tourism Award of Excellence from Destination Mansfield-Richland County, Ohio for The Shawshank Experience: Tracking the History of the World’s Most Popular Movie
• 2014 “Redemption Through the Feminine in The Shawshank Redemption.” Keynote Address to accompany the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Shawshank Redemption. Invited address. Ashland University, Mansfield, Ohio
• 2014 Ira Allen Society Lecture. UVM Foundation. Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston, MA
• 2011 University Scholar Award, 2010-11. University of Vermont
• 2007 What She Says About Love (poems). Winner of the 2007 Bordighera Poetry Prize [Judge: Michael Palma]. New York: The Calandra Institute, CUNY Graduate Center
• 2003 Dean’s Lecture Award for Outstanding Scholar and Teacher, Arts and Sciences, University of Vermont
• 2001 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, University of Vermont
• 2001-2010 Invited to teach various seminars offered in the John Dewey Honors Program, University of Vermont
• 2000 Inaugural Lecture, UVM / Boston Alumni Speakers Series
• 2000 Distinguished Scholar Lecture, Broward Community College, Davie, FL
• 2000 “Monstrous Otherness” a seminar for high school teachers selected for inclusion in the Teachers and Scholars Program. Funded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• 1997 Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Vermont
• 1997 Keynote Address, New England Young Writer’s Conference, Bread Loaf, VT
• 1995-present Staff Writer, New England Young Writer’s Conference, Bread Loaf, VT
• 1993-2000 American Literature Division Head, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
• 1990-93 Board of Directors, Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences, Middletown Springs, VT
• 1986-present Trustee and Member of the Board of Directors, The Swedish Program, Stockholm University, Sweden
• 1984-85 Consultant to the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ
• 1978 Ph.D. Comprehensive Examinations passed with Distinction, University of Pittsburgh
• 1974 B.A. Thesis, “Dostoevsky and the Theme of Suffering” accepted with Honors, Allegheny College

Area(s) of expertise

Poe, gothicism, writing across the curriculum, horror film